Passengers


Motley

Motley

Active Member
I just picked up some Walthers Pullman-Standard Streamlined City Cars for my new museum excursion train with the Veranda Turbine.

I didn't think it was that important to add passengers, but after I thought about it, you never see passenger trains with no passengers right?

So I got the Bachman passengers and I also painted the interior. The floors and walls are dark brown and the seats are tan. And added interior lighting.

My question is, do you guys add passengers and detail interiors of your passenger cars? It makes a world of difference, if your thinking about it, go for it you will be happy.

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Nice detailing Michael! Im not big into passenger service, but I will have to agree with you, adding passengers and adding lighting to the inside makes a world of difference. I also like that you painted the interiors, thats something I bet not a whole lot of people do either
 
Thanks Josh, ya it was really easy to do. All I did was pop off the roof, and carefully painted with a small brush. And the lights were amazingly simple to install, unlike my Amtrak Superliners which were a PITA.
 
I add people and paint the interiors, and also tint windows. Especially in coaches. Up to a max of 10 passengers per coach. Less for sleepers, and I usually populate domes heavily. It really does make a difference once you see it with & without. I don't do much lighting though. That's a feature low on my list of necessary details.
 
I agree adding passengers figures goes a long way toward making passenger trains look realistic. I also like adding crews to locomotives.
 
Nice job. Just got two F7s and two dummies that I put all Arthearn super hex motors in. Now that there done I am adding 35 Bachman Passenger cars, taking out there lighting and putting in LED, and will be adding passengers, and sound. I remeber when I was much younger dad was an engineer for Pennsy, and I was on them alot.
 
USMC6770 said:
Nice job. Just got two F7s and two dummies that I put all Arthearn super hex motors in. Now that there done I am adding 35 Bachman Passenger cars, taking out there lighting and putting in LED, and will be adding passengers, and sound. I remeber when I was much younger dad was an engineer for Pennsy, and I was on them alot.
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Marine. Welcome to the forum! You'll find many fine folks on here. Looking forward to seeing some pics of your equip! Now turn out of your rack for inspection!:D
 
Adding passengers to my trains has been an 'arm chair' activity of mine over the last couple of years. I try and make sure that the passenger can be seen thru the window, and not stuck behind a bulkhead. My passenger cars aren't full, but are well populated.
 
Has anybody tried the lighting that comes fitted to Rapido cars and as in my case (UP) had the whole car light up because the walls don't stop it penetrating?
 
tootnkumin said:
Has anybody tried the lighting that comes fitted to Rapido cars and as in my case (UP) had the whole car light up because the walls don't stop it penetrating?
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Rapido makes a battery/LED system called the "easy peasy". I have my Athearn Pullman train fitted with them. They work great but it's easy to forget they're on when you shut down which results in having to buy more watch batteries. The magnetic wand switch activator is cool though.
 
Dave S said:
Rapido makes a battery/LED system called the "easy peasy". I have my Athearn Pullman train fitted with them. They work great but it's easy to forget they're on when you shut down which results in having to buy more watch batteries. The magnetic wand switch activator is cool though.
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Yes it would be easy to forget, except in my case, as they turn the Rapido cars into a lantern. What color are your cars?
 
Did you paint the walls in the Rapido cars? That helps with the light bleeding through. Paint the walls a dark color, give it a couple of coats.
 
Motley said:
I didn't think it was that important to add passengers, but after I thought about it, you never see passenger trains with no passengers right?
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Well almost. In the day that is a true statement otherwise they would not have been running the trains. In the late early 1960s that got more common as people went to air travel. Now and excursion train should probably have every seat filled and SRO with people in the isles.

My question is, do you guys add passengers and detail interiors of your passenger cars?
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Has been on my to-do list for years. Unfortunately it is one of the more time consuming and costly modifications to make. I just purchased 10 sets of Preiser seated passengers for the new El Capitan. I really needed more than twice that many, but decided too many of the "same" pose would eventually be noticed. On the El Capitan if every seat was not filled they would reduce the train length by a car. Of course there are reserved seats for people to be picked up later in the run, and always someone going to the bathroom, lounge, or dining car, but seldom anything that looks like a sparsely populated car.
 
Motley said:
Did you paint the walls in the Rapido cars? That helps with the light bleeding through. Paint the walls a dark color, give it a couple of coats.
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No I haven't tried that yet, thought about it, but looks a pretty fiddly job without completely dismantling the coach, if that's at all possible. I guess it's about having lots of patience and a steady hand.
 
tootnkumin said:
No I haven't tried that yet, thought about it, but looks a pretty fiddly job without completely dismantling the coach, if that's at all possible. I guess it's about having lots of patience and a steady hand.
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When I painted the walls on mine. I just removed the roof. And I got a small piece of paper, and put that against the windows, then painted the walls. It was easy, only took a few minutes.

Just get a new piece of paper, for each little section of windows. You don't have to be perfect either, because most of it, you can't see through the windows anyways, when viewing the car from eye level, after you replace the roof.
 
I removed the roof back off the car I had fitted the batteries into to see what was involved in painting the walls. On this particular Rapido car (cafe lounge) the windows are plastic sheets that cover virtually all the walls and are held in place by the roof clips and locating tabs. I'm going to have a go at dismantling this coach (short of destroying it) and will put my findings up in a new thread with a reference back here so as not to deviate from this threads subject, if that's OK.
 
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